On the Flip Side
by N. H. Moonshadow
Summary: While on a gig eliminating scumbags in sunny California, Loki is interested to discover a girl who had been touched by something not of their world. When the girl's day goes from bad to bizarre, Loki finds himself surrounded by alien constructs and en-souled cars. In his efforts to help from the behind the scenes, he ends up a bit over his head.(Please read Disregarded first)
1. Chapter 1

On the Flip Side

Chapter 1

For those familiar with how Tricksters operate, they might be surprised to learn about some of their most frequented locations. Well, at least for one Trickster in particular. It may seem strange, but schools of all levels provided some of the best hunting grounds in this day and age.

Usually Loki prowled college campuses, finding many a deserving soul among the vast seas of student bodies and faculty members. Humans who had yet to out-grow the basics of schoolyard pettiness were usually below his pay grade, unless they did something to trigger an impulsive response if the inspiration struck. He liked to save his lessons for the more malicious examples of humanity.

Or, you know, really annoying assholes who happened to grab his attention.

Today his playground of choice was a high school located in the heart of California, just thirty-something miles south of San Francisco. The campus was private and pristine, admitting only those white-collar children whose parents could afford the ridiculous price tag attached to the uniform.

He wondered how many of those parents would care to learn that every morning they sent their little darlings off to school they were parading them in front of an equal-opportunist kidnapper and child molester.

Well, they weren't _anymore_ but that was beside the point.

Mr. Camponella had quite the track record under his belt, not that there was any record of it in any police database. The sleaze was careful in his choice of targets, making sure to cover his tracks and making sure to leave nothing that could trace back to him. Over the last ten years he had played with dozens of children ranging from ages ten to sixteen, and had taken several others as his personal toys. Once he was done with them he drove them up to his family's property up in the nearby Santa Cruz mountains, where he had pre-dug graves in preparation for their arrival.

What a charmer, right?

Sadly, Mr. Camponella took his last breath at approximately 2:45 that morning, courtesy of several of the Trickster's constructs in the shape of the history teacher's previous victims. It was only fair that the man experience some of the more creative techniques that he had used himself.

It would probably be a few weeks before the body was found.

Maybe months.

And so here he was, masquerading as a last minute substitute teacher who happened to be available and had glowing credentials.

It was easy enough, and it allowed him to do one last sweep of the school before he moved on to fresh territory.

The school day was nearly half over, his current batch of students were a mix of sophomores and juniors, almost all of them restless and ready for their lunch break.

When you've been roaming the planet as long as Loki has, history was a cakewalk. When you were disregarding the lesson plan it was easy to pick out some of the more interesting topics to discuss and once it became apparent he was rather free-handed with passing out candy for active participants he was in good with the kids.

After making several mental sweeps, it became obvious that there was no one else left for him. A few students might make his list in a few years if they held true to their course, especially the homophobic jock in the back, and a bully of a girl who had been harboring dark thoughts towards one of her classmates all morning. But both of them were younger than he preferred his targets to be, even for one of his less deadly pranks.

Eventually the bell rang for lunch. The class rose en-mass and flooded out through the doors, all of them keeping to the routine followed by students across the nation. Repetitive.

_Boring._

So imagine Loki's surprise, and delight, when the fight erupted down the hall.

Being what he was, he didn't have to be right there to see what was happening. With so many witnesses present, and all of them with their minds wide open, he practically had a 360-degree view of what was going on.

The instigator was the bully he had noticed earlier, a girl named _Charity_ of all things, and apparently she was much closer to making his list that he first assumed. With her emotions running on high he could read her crystal clear; her mind clouded with jealousy, self-importance, and the burning need to belittle those she saw as below her. Already he could see the very beginnings of sadism. Apparently last year the painted prima donna had harassed another girl so badly that she had taken her own life. Charity had taken a small measure of pleasure once she learned of the girl's death; drunk on the power trip of knowing she had helped trigger it.

And she was trying to do it again, on someone she had assumed was even weaker.

Loki could see where she thought so. Little miss Jodi Hunter was a scrappy little thing: whip thin, just under five feet tall, and with a noticeable vision impairment in one eye. For the duration of his class she had sat near the back, distracted and anxious. Her aura was tarnished by mental scarring and shot through with deep-rooted fear and the need to survive.

That wasn't so surprising.

He recognized her from a news broadcast when he was working a gig a few states over. He was familiar with the story the public was given, presented optimistically as a Christmas Miracle that she was found after a (supposed) seven-month abduction. Human investigations tended to be less than accurate, but maybe there had been a kernel of truth to the story. She certainly showed _some_ signs of past trauma.

Then again so did a lot of humans.

The fight was over a phone, of all things. Seeing how Jodi coveted the battered thing, and how desperately she wanted it back prompted Charity to try to ruin it.

If she had been paying attention then _maybe _she would have spotted the textbook before it collided with the side of her face.

The bully became the unexpected victim and if _that_ wasn't just desserts then he didn't know _what_ was.

For a girl so underfed and just about half-blind Jodi was positively _feral_ when she was angry, like a Mini-Hulk in a pint-sized package. All of her fear seemed to evaporate in the wake of the wrath that burned through her, punching and clawing at her opponent however she could.

Loki wanted to give Jodi a round of applause when she stabbed Charity with a pencil.

He nearly did when she shattered it in the girl's arm and then deliberately drove the splinters deeper in.

It was a shame he had to break it up. But, well, _substitute teacher_ after all.

He had appearances to keep.

When Jodi slipped the hold of the first teacher, as evasive as an eel, he took it as his cue to step in, locking one arm around her middle as the other caught her left arm before she could take another swing.

Loki nearly dropped her right there.

Upon contact something Other pinged at his senses, setting off every warning he had and making his true abilities flare up in a way they hadn't in _centuries_.

What he _did _do was school his features carefully, gave a curt "alright kiddo, that's enough." and escort the kid to the office to wait for the police that were on their way.

Upon their arrival he created a double of himself, and let himself fall off the visual radar. Once his doppelganger handed the girl off to the office staff he lingered behind to examine her more closely.

The kid was human. Utterly. Completely.

There was nothing in her blood to suggest otherwise, and she felt squeaky clean of any and all supernatural influence. He could sense no magical artifacts, no cursed objects, and her body didn't give any suggestion of sigils of power, tattooed or otherwise.

But she did have an odd scar on the arm that he grabbed.

A rather large one.

It was some sort of chemical burn, more than an inch wide and running in a crisp line the length of her forearm. While he could tell the skin was healed and new, the flesh that made the scar itself was bright pink and shiny, like it was freshly made.

Hidden completely from human senses, he brushed his fingers against it, and instantly grit his teeth as his senses lit up again, the true core of his self rousing like a slumbering giant against an intruder.

Now that he was focusing his full attention on it he could tell what he was feeling was just residual energy embedded in the scar tissue, some sort of transfer left behind by whatever made it. The energy signature was so _foreign _he had never seen anything remotely like it.

And that was worrisome since his memory was almost as long and expansive as time itself.

The signature grated against him, his own power screaming Unknown, and Other, and set him on edge in a way he hadn't been since before he took up the mantle of Loki. There wasn't a single Pantheon in the known galaxy that had a hand in its creation. That included the Big G and that alone was terrifying.

This kid had officially become Interesting.

Miss Jodi Hunter was taken into custody in front of half the school. She went quietly enough, standing tall in the face of her audience, but any creature, or human psychic worth their salt, could feel the fury still circulating through her. She kept it white-hot and well stoked, using it to fortify herself within her mind.

He thought he saw a glimmer of satisfaction in her eye when she spotted a sobbing Charity being loaded into an ambulance. Sure, she was a little scuffed herself, and had a bloody lip to boot, but it was clear who had won the cat-fight.

He shadowed her, leaving his double behind to finish the school day and take a statement. He reclined beside her during her ride to the station, contemplating what to do about this odd development.

_If_ he decided to do anything at all.

That was his problem in a nutshell, wasn't it?

Loki wasn't keen on delving too deep in the unknown; you never knew what kind of attention you'd attract. The _very_ last thing he needed was unwanted attention. He had spent too long carving out his niche, and had invested too much time covering his ass.

But could he afford ignorance when there was potentially a new player in the field? Could he afford being blindsided?

Lost in his thoughts, he snapped a Snickers into existence, unwrapped it and chomped into it noisily as he contemplated.

As he continued to examine the teen he noticed one more oddity about the kid's scar. It glowed. Kind of. Sure it was faint as hell and most humans would never even notice with their limited perception, but in the dim light of the police cruiser the burn held a soft opalescent shimmer.

Huh. That was new.

There were dozens of jokes he could probably make here, but sadly there was no one here to appreciate it. No point in making a joke when there wasn't a proper audience.

Loki took another huge bite from his candy bar and wondered what kind of thing was capable of making such a mark. Animal. Vegetable. Mineral.

He had no frickin' clue, and that bothered the _crap_ out of him.

The next hour or so was pretty boring. The officers dealing with Jodi were all gruff and serious as if they could impose a sense of guilt on her by being intimidating. Loki was less than impressed, and Jodi even less so. The kid seemed content to sit in silence as they walked her through the process, rolling her eyes at the cop who took her to an interrogation room, forced her to sit and ordered her to stay put. She huffed when he slammed the door behind him.

Figuring they weren't going anywhere any time soon, Loki picked a corner and settled in for the wait. After debating the pros and cons, he opened up a direct line to Jodi's mind, being careful to stick to surface thoughts and emotions. He wanted to be cautious, but he also wanted to keep a better understanding of the situation as it developed. Things were easier to assess when _someone_ knew what was going on.

Good thing too.

When the image of a blue-eyed Fed came bursting into the room, seething and practically spitting cold-fire, Loki bristled.

The man was anything but human. The thing standing there was a construct, somehow created solely from light and energy. It was hollow with no true life force of it's own, a mere avatar for someone, _something_, else. It was also Other, the energy signature strikingly similar to the residual left on the girl's scar.

Similar, _very_ similar, but not identical.

Jodi recognized him, her mind helpfully supplying the terms _Holoform,_ and _Autobot _and labeling him as hostile, before she zeroed in on the phone in it's hand. Her very own ancient beat-up Blackberry, the one she hospitalized Charity over.

She _knew_ the thing standing in front of her wasn't human, wasn't even from this planet.

And she was unafraid. He didn't know whether to tag her as brave or just plain stupid.

When it demanded to know how long she had the phone Loki blinked at her responses. She quickly became stubborn and belligerent, posture and word all but telling the construct, Holoform, to fuck off.

Well, apparently the answer to that was; _both._

He listened to their conversation with interest, curious about how she got tangled up with these things in the first place. Apparently Blue-Eyes wanted to know as well, but it wasn't something she was willing to share.

A second Other was mentioned repeatedly, someone called Barricade (_seriously?_), and it was clear that Blue-Eyes was on less than friendly terms with him, even though he seemed to mean something to Jodi. Though, _man_, was that name a trigger for a cluster-fuck of emotions.

Whoever it was, he seemed to have ditched the kid.

Her thoughts on the subject roiled with hurt and betrayal, along with a myriad of other things, but apparently she was a fiercely loyal creature, and no matter how Blue-Eyes pled his case, Jodi refused to out him.

Good for her.

Throughout their discussion (more like a battle of wills), her hand would drift to her scar, palming it like one would clutch at a talisman. The motion seemed like an unconscious habit, becoming more predominant when Jodi confessed that she didn't believe her friend was ever coming back.

Loki's best guess was that this Barricade guy had something to do with her getting it in the first place. Deliberate or accidental, he couldn't tell, and the kid's mind wouldn't pony up the info without deeper prodding.

_The plot thickens_.

Their tempers both petered out after Jodi's little declaration, prompting the Other to fork over the kid's phone as some sort of peace offering. He also left her his contact information in case of an emergency.

_"Prowl"? Seriously who came up with these names?_

Loki didn't like how he had prefaced informing her of the details. Words like "in light of recent developments" usually suggested that there was something big going down, or _about to,_ and he _hated_ not knowing what was happening behind the curtain. That was usually his turf after all.

Before he could properly mull over that little tidbit, a stupidly well-dressed man swept into the room. He was tall and broad, with a mustached face, and a suitcase in hand.

As soon as he entered it was like a switch had been flipped within the kid.

All that fire that had carried Jodi since the fight with Charity just up and disappeared. Poof, gone, the inferno snuffed out like a candle-flame. In its place came a flood of deeply ingrained fear and a rising sense of panic.

And these were simply _surface thoughts._

Prowl quickly excused himself, and Loki felt a tug as Jodi's thoughts fleetingly begged for him to stay.

She was more terrified of this man than she was of an entity that she clearly labeled as her enemy.

That spoke _volumes_.

Loki gave the man a hard appraising stare, then let loose a long two-note whistle. "Oh _man_. Ain't you just a lovely piece of work."

Understatement.

Loki didn't _need_ to delve too deep to see the amount of corruption layered over the man's soul, but he did anyway. At a glance he already mentally added him to his "To Do" list, seeing as this guy was _more_ than qualified, but it usually worked out best when he knew all of his target's dirty little secrets.

And, of boy, did David Hunter have a long, _long_ line of dirty little secrets.

Publically, David was a strict but hardworking man. A respectable man. He kept long hours at his rather successful firm, but tried hard to take care of his niece, and was trying to work through her trauma of loosing both her parents and then surviving a long-term kidnapping.

In actuality, he was an uncompassionate douche bag who valued money and keeping appearances over all else. He was controlling and manipulative. He had many friends in strategic places, and had them all at his beck and call as long as he kept their pockets greased. His influence ran deep, and there had been dozens of incidents where he ruined lives on a whim, all the while making sure nothing traced back to him.

He was an intelligent, but unstable, psychopath who had arranged his own brother's murder, paid to make it look like an act of God, had all the evidence swept away, and all to have a shot at seducing his sister in-law. However, his efforts drove that same woman to suicide, just so she could fully rid herself of his harassment.

He sliced his niece's face with a box-cutter when her temper and green-eyed glare reminded him more of her father than her mother. And that was only the first time he had laid hands on the kid. The medical center he took her to then and every visit after was on his payroll and made sure to keep child services off his back.

He had to give Jodi credit, he was surprised the kid had any spark left at all.

As vile and tainted as David's soul was (the sheer volume of his transgressions making Loki's fingers itch with the need to snap up a proper punishment sooner rather than later), there was an additional dark spot present, reeking of sulfur and counting down his days as sure as a doomsday clock.

David was marked by a crossroads deal, with the ten-year expiration date less than two years away.

Loki dove deeper, wanting to see the deal in its entirety. He saw it all. The dusty crossroads in the middle of California's more rural central valley, the demon itself, smiling and wearing a voluptuous and heart-faced red-head. He heard every work and witnessed the kiss that sealed the deal.

As he pulled from the memory a slow, wicked grin spread across Loki's face.

Some demons were more . . . _generous_ than others when it came to the details of the deals they made. Good customer service he supposed, they were selling their _soul_ after all. But this one, oh, _this one_ had picked her words carefully, clarified the specifics herself, and then kept to the letter of that agreement. No more.

What David had _wanted_ was Erica, Jodi's mother. He craved her, obsessed over her, and he was insanely jealous that his brother had caught her first. He had believed that if he proved himself to be better than Nick, blue-collar, un-ambitious Nick, then Erica would fall into his arms and he could tuck her away like a coveted gem. He told the demon he wanted wealth, and total control over his business, because with money came power.

And he was successful on that front. He took over a law firm that grew more prestigious every year, and with filthy rich clientele he was practically rolling in money.

But Erica wasn't a woman who could be bought and had remained unmoved.

David had ranted and raged, and tried to edit his contract, but it was done. With his soul already bought and paid for, he had nothing left to offer.

In the end all he got from Erica was a bloody message left on a bathroom mirror, and an unwanted niece who was proving more trouble than she was worth.

And after this last stunt, he was _done _with her.

Loki shook himself free from the man's mind, sloughing off the black coating on the human's soul.

David Hunter would die, but not by his hand. He was already marked, and being a Hell Hound's chew toy was a gruesome way to go. Who was he to deny David that little play date?

Didn't mean he wasn't going to be his personal poltergeist for the time he had left, though.

But first there was the current situation at hand.

Now determined, he followed the two humans out of the police station and into an appropriately shiny new sedan. Loki lounged in the back and crossed his arms thoughtfully, tapping a finger to his lips as he eyed the two sitting in front. The tension was thick in the air and he could feel Jodi slip further and further into panic with every passing second.

But David . . .

While Jodi's anger had driven the kid to a sharply focused point, David's fury scattered his rational, making him even more unstable than normal. If Loki left now he knew, without a doubt, that Jodi would be dead before sundown.

He _hated_ leaving children to be slaughtered, much less by their own kin. It struck too close to home. Sure, sixteen wasn't _that_ young, but that was all relative, most humans were children compared to him.

They hadn't been on the road for five minutes when he noticed their shadow, its arrival making all of his senses light up like a damned Christmas tree.

_Other_.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." He turned to stare at the scuffed up cop car a block or two back. At a glance it was easy to see that this vehicle didn't belong to Palo Alto PD besides the fact that, while stylish, the car looked too fucked up to be on rotation in such an up-scale area. Plus the paint and decals on the mustang were all wrong, which was a hint in and of itself, but then he Saw it. "Oh. What. The. _Hell_."

If Loki were human, he would probably be tripping over the fact that the car _had no driver_. But as it stands, haunted cars aren't as original as you'd think, and that was beside the point. Because the car wasn't haunted, it was alive. As in sentient.

As in it had a soul.

The bloody _car_ had a _soul_!

Though it was unlike any soul he had ever seen before. In most creatures, their soul spread out to fill their entire form, only condensing in birth, death, or amputation. It was just how it was.

This soul was confined, contained in a sphere about twice the size of a softball, coated and armored and buried somewhere near the heart of the engine block. But there were lines of _something _running through the body of the car, all of it tainted with the energy coming off the soul itself. From the flow of the lines he could tell that this thing (Cybertronian, Jodi had called them, this had to be one) was something twisted and folded down upon itself to keep the shape it was in.

Then he remembered.

"Son of a bitch. Coyote wasn't yanking my chain after all," Loki muttered.

A little over a year ago he had been visited by a few other tricksters, with one in particular spouting a whole bunch of B.S. about giant alien robots smashing up a whole city and the human government pouring truckloads of money to hush it up. He had brushed it off as just another trickster running amok with a large-scale prank.

Apparently not.

_Crap._

"Well, looks like I owe that mutt a gift basket."

As he ghosted his mind along the being, testing, Loki realized this guy _had _to be Barricade. The energy signature was the exact same as the residual on the kid's scar.

This could be good for him, he might not have to step in after all. If this guy gave a damn about the kid at all, he would intervene before anything drastic happened and Loki wouldn't be forced to do anything that could be considered out of character. He had appearances to keep after all.

You know, unless he grossly misread the situation, which was entirely possible.

So he shouldn't have been so disappointed when the fake cop car hung back when they pulled into a driveway.

Things escalated quickly once they reached the Hunter residence. David manhandled a trembling Jodi out of the car, and shoved her towards the house, leaving Loki to follow by his own means. She made a run for it as soon as the door slammed shut, bolting forward like a horse shooting from a starting gate. The kid was fast, but her uncle was faster, and had long legs that quickly covered ground. He grabbed her by the arm and all but threw her into the kitchen.

Loki's fingers itched, but he forced himself to stillness. _Not yet_, he whispered to himself.

David was verbally laying into her, pacing back and forth like an agitated predator. He hadn't really done much yet, but he was working himself up, every word spouting from his mouth making him more and more unstable.

Of course, _that_ had to be the moment when Jodi re-discovered her backbone, her retort sharp and to the point and striking home.

He back-handed the kid as soon as the words left her mouth. The force behind it sent her spinning, momentum slamming to a stop as she caught herself on the kitchen counter.

David grabbed her shoulder.

Loki lifted his fingers to snap.

Jodi whirled, quick as lightning, a kitchen knife in hand, and slashed her uncle across the chest.

"Don't touch me!" Jodi growled, holding the knife out like a sword, voice trembling. "No more, you sadistic son of a bitch."

Loki froze and slowly lowered his hand.

_Well. Will wonders never cease_.

The kid was still petrified, Loki could feel that as clear as anything, but her resolve was steely and it almost vibrated through her. Jodi visibly shook as she saw her uncle's wrath grow colder, but she stood her ground regardless. She ignored her uncle's warning when she took out her phone, speed dialing her brand new contact.

Loki heard her pray that she wasn't wrong in trusting Prowl, unknowing that someone else was sitting on his ass just a few houses down.

Unfortunately, Jodi didn't get a chance to talk to Prowl.

David lunged then, utilizing his size and strength to disarm her, but Jodi was tenacious in her grip on her knife. They slammed back against the counter, and when it became clear that Jodi wasn't about to let go, her uncle turned brutal.

Jodi screamed as her wrist snapped like a dry twig. In a flash, David had his niece on the floor with a hand around her throat.

The only thing that stayed Loki's hand from filleting the douchbag on the spot was the piercing screech of tires, and the sudden onslaught of worry and panic coming from a foreign source.

_Well, this promises to be entertaining._

Right on cue, a dark-haired construct, Holoform, _whatever_, came crashing right through the front door and barreled into the room, burning red eyes quickly absorbing the scene before him. Rage flashed behind his eyes, making him snarl like a monster as he darted forward. With the bulk of the Holoform it was like watching an angry bear charging in to protect its cub.

Loki watched with maniacal glee as the Holoform chucked Davy-Boy clear across the room like a ragdoll. Knowing how much the man valued material things, it was satisfying to see him back-flop on his five-thousand-dollar glass dining table, shattering the thing into a million pieces. The sound it made was downright musical.

The Trickster couldn't help but give a round of applause, not caring that none of the other occupants could hear him at the moment.

Without waiting to see if the uncle was down for the count, the Holoform crouched over the unconscious girl, calling her name. For a mere construct, the poor bastard looked absolutely lost and Loki wondered just how in-tune these things were with their source. He tried to wake the kid, hands touching her injuries like he was positive she would break if he applied too much pressure. "Jodi, come on, you have to help me. I have no experience with human repairs." He gave a harder shake. "Jodi!"

Well, no matter what Prowl had spat at Jodi earlier, regardless of much truth his speech had held, this guy clearly cared about the kid. That was something.

The kid came to and quickly identified her rescuer as "'Cade", voice brittle and raspy from the strangling her uncle had so kindly given her. Even as she began to cry with relief, Loki saw all the hurt and betrayal well together as she started to yell at him and hit him on the chest.

Loki winced as that reminded her that her wrist was a shattered mess, collapsing back in on herself and whimpering.

The way Barricade carefully gathered her to him and lifting her to her feet made Loki think of how one would handle spun glass. To be fair, judging by how easily he chucked David across the room it was probably an accurate comparison.

And speaking of David . . .

The crazed human was now on his feet, spewing empty threats at Barricade.

Blood red irises nailed the man with an unimpressed glare, and growled, low and angry. "Pray to your god, human. Because the next time we meet, _I will kill you._"

Without another word, the Holoform turned and escorted his injured human out of the house.

Feeling that their day was far from over, Loki silently followed in their wake.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

On the Flip Side

Chapter 2

It was downright _bizarre_ actually sitting _in_ another sentient being.

Don't get him wrong, during his trickster career Loki had done more than his fair share of weird, but this? Just bizarre.

It was interesting to note that Barricade was about as spiritually aware as your average human. That was lucky for him in this case, but still, interesting. When his first tentative brush against his consciousness didn't stir up any response, Loki deemed it safe to linger in his surface thoughts as well. Jodi seemed pretty out of the loop after all, and with her in her current condition she wasn't offering up any useful info.

He watched and listened to the human girl and alien construct interact, feeling _hurt-stubbornness-pain_ on one side and _worry-guilt-stress_ on the other. Given his painfully obvious lack of experience, Loki had to give Barricade props for trying to get some sort of diagnosis from the girl. The fact he was making it a point of keeping her awake was good, considering the rather nasty concussion the kid had, but he didn't know that. Unfortunately, frustration was quickly getting the better of the guy as Jodi blatantly refused to cooperate.

"Stop acting like you care!" Jodi finally spat at him in that way only human teenagers could.

Oh, _ouch_.

Barricade's guilt was a tangible thing, practically radiating from the condensed ball of his soul. The bright blue thing gave a pulse and strained against its casing, almost like it wanted to reach out to the kid and _touch_. It caught Loki's attention because it was something most souls _couldn't do_. At least not without some serious outside influence, like blood magic.

And then the girl's soul tried to pulse back.

Tried being the key word, but still Loki stared, completely gobsmacked. "These two are a goddamned soap opera."

It wasn't like Jodi's soul was reaching out like Barricade's was, no, again, serious mojo needed, human souls just weren't designed that way, but for it to be affected enough to _react_ was astonishing. It was like . . . like . . . Loki grasped for a comparison.

It was almost like two connected spheres trying to resonate, but unable to find the same frequency. He wondered if prolonged proximity to his soul acted as some sort of catalyst, or if something else had triggered it, but without delving head-first into memories he had no way of knowing, and even then nothing was for sure.

Never, in all of his long years, had he seen anything like this before.

And here he had been bored this morning. He snorted. Be careful what you wish for and all that.

He was still reeling from his little realization when he felt another Cybertronian pull into the slew of traffic behind them, the grating feel of Other dragging him back to the present. At some point they had pulled onto the freeway, but even so it was easy to spot their tail, at least for Loki anyway. The alien had a similar soul layout as Barricade, only in the guise of a purple news van. Dark streaks marked the pathways of energy nearly drowning out the blue, and Loki wondered if that meant the same kind of deep corruption as it did for humans. But Barricade had them too, though the streaks were fine, threaded so delicately through his framework that you had to be up close and personal to notice.

But then again, that Prowl guy had implied that he had a history of doing less than nice things, so there was that.

Even if he wasn't still connected to Barricade's thoughts, he would have known the moment he and the new arrival made contact by the way he nearly collided with a car in the next lane. But since he _was_ still lingering in Barricade's mind he was totally unprepared when a monotone voice echoed down the connection, translating through Barricade's bio-mechanical mind.

"_Barricade: Report."_

It was some sort of communication system, it had to be being machines and all, but the sensation of that sort of connection, no matter how superficial, rattled him as his mind compared it to the only thing that came close in his experience. It wasn't the same, and was on a much smaller scale besides, but still . . . he used to be part of a much larger radio wave, and the memory of it still stung.

Barricade didn't let him stew in his personal problems for long, what with the sudden flood of panic that was drowning his psyche. Apparently the new arrival, this Soundwave guy, was big fish where he came from, high ranking and scary as shit if his frame of mind was anything to go by. Plus a close-range psychic of sorts. Images echoed along Loki's connection as Barricade's thoughts touched on them, memories of metal figures screaming, and then lying still, minds cauterized from the inside out after being tapped dry of useful information.

Well, wasn't _that_ just dandy? What were the odds he would pick up on Barricade's second passenger?

Honestly, Loki wasn't really looking to find out.

Thoughts of life depts and treason swirled across Barricade's mind, followed quickly by fear for the girl's life, and it only got worse when Jodi cottoned on to the fact they were being followed.

The kid twisted a bit in her seat and stared right through Loki to look at the van behind them. "Is that another one of those Autobot guys?"

"No."

She twisted back to stare at the Holoform sitting in the driver's seat. "What do you mean 'no'? How many factions did you guys have?"

"Just the two."

"Then why . . ." She leveled him with a look, voice tipping towards hysterical. "'Cade, what aren't you telling me?"

"Jodi-"

"No! What _aren't you telling me_?"

_"Barricade: REPORT."_

The tension quickly escalated, Jodi's anger flaring to the fore and Barricade trying to quell the panic at ignoring the other mechanical being.

Loki leaned forward, propping an elbow on both front seats as he absorbed the flurry info he was getting from Barricade. For the first time Loki felt the true amount of pain that wracked the alien as a whole, and was startled as he realized that this massive metal being was _injured_, like borderline could-have-been-fucked-for-life injured. Lies and carefully placed omissions were all catching up to him at the worst possible moment, and now with their new problem he just couldn't deal.

Prowl's name was dropped in a bitter remark from Jodi and for a moment it was like all the electronic elements that made up Barricade froze, and then spun on fast forward as he formed a plan with the new information. Loki felt him send out a specifically coded message, as loud and clear as an open prayer, and broadcasted just as widely.

It screamed desperate measure, and that didn't sit well with Loki.

Especially when Barricade didn't really believe that help would actually come.

Loki leaned more firmly on the driver's seat as the being on wheels doubled his speed. He hovered over the Holoform's shoulder. "If he does show, he's not gonna make it in time to help," Loki told him conversationally. "You know that right?"

There was no reply, of course.

Loki considered leaving again, especially when Barricade cut a swath through traffic with his sirens, and then used his reinforced frame to make holes where there was none. None of the accidents were fatal, Loki could tell that much, but the sheer amount of collateral that the blockhead was leaving was impressive, and not in the good way.

But Loki was already here, and the kid wasn't out of the clear yet. He would leave when this confrontation was over, or when the cavalry arrived, but if things _really_ got hairy he would take the kid and leave.

Once they hit the coastline Barricade burned some serious rubber to put distance between them and their tail, and then quickly gave Jodi a brief rundown of the plan.

Great plan, absolutely _stellar_.

Sadly, the whole explanation consisted of "I sent out a distress signal. All we have to do is stall Soundwave long enough for him to find us."

"Him", of course, being Prowl. Needless to say, his grand plan wasn't inspiring a whole lot of confidence from anyone present, himself included.

But his mind was decided, and he was sticking to his guns. Not like there seemed to be a whole lot of other options.

The living cop car came to a screeching halt on the blind curve of a ridge, wheels skidding slightly on the loose dirt of the shoulder. The passenger door flew open on it's own as Jodi's seatbelt came undone, all a split second before the girl was shoved from the car by the Holoform. Loki wanted to smack him for his complete disregard for the kid's injuries.

All the same, the trickster took that as his cue to exit as well, popping up a few feet behind Jodi. And good thing too.

Because as soon as the girl was clear, the black and white interceptor fell apart and _unfolded_ before standing on his own two legs.

He couldn't help the sharp cackle of laughter that erupted from this throat, because _come on_!

Giant. Alien. _Robots_. And they weren't even of Loki's own design!

Even though he had caught glimpses in Barricade's mind, it was a different experience _entirely _to actually witness it. Ever a creature attuned to detail, the trickster was quick to note the scuffs and dents in the armor, whole sections where the metal looked thin, and brittle like freshly healed skin.

"'Cade, what are you doing?"

Glowing red lenses glared down at them, well, at _Jodi_, but you get the idea. Loki was kind of distracted by a rather terrifying face, and all the sharp and pointy angles that jutted from the metal frame when Barricade spoke. His voice was the same, gruff and deep, but kinda tinny, as if run through a filter. "Hide yourself and if you see an opportunity, run."

"I'm not leav-"

"Jodi, _now_!"

And look at that, the kid could follow directions after all.

Having absolutely no desire to be closer than necessary to the oncoming alien psychic, the trickster trailed after her and plopped himself on the downed tree Jodi came to hide behind. Besides, it would be easier to split if the kid was close at hand.

The ground shook as the two metallic giants began to duke it out. Loki couldn't see much from here, but that was just fine by him. If he really wanted to he could send his senses out to get a better idea of what was going on, but he was keeping his abilities firmly to himself. They were fine just where they were, and with luck Jodi would find her opening and make her escape.

And then Barricade and his current dance partner very clearly took a tumble over the edge of the ridge.

So of course, in true rebellious fashion, the kid did the exact _opposite_ of what she'd been told and was hastily scampering to where they had disappeared.

You couldn't actually see anything from the top of the ridge and before Loki knew it, the girl had flung off her shoes and was sliding down the sandy trail that cut a steep path down to the beach. She came to a stop about halfway down, eyes glued to the mecha-madness style throw down happening on the beach.

Soundwave was bigger than Barricade, taller and wider, and moved with the ease of someone who knew what their opponent was going to do before they did it. Barricade was fighting terrified and angry and it was clear that Soundwave was using that to his full advantage, letting him work himself up and tire himself out.

The fight was going to be over the moment Soundwave got bored.

For what felt like the millionth time that day, Loki felt the proximity of even _more _Cybertronians, the presence of so many grating across his senses and making his skin crawl. But scattered among them were about a dozen human souls, and even without peering too closely Loki knew what military minds looked like.

Loki started swearing in every language he knew.

The new arrivals complicated his position to the point of frustration. There were too many witnesses for his signature brand of interference, sisnce someone was bound to notice _something_, and the last thing he wanted was to personally out the more occult side of the world to the American Government. Or _any_ government really. That wasn't the kind of rep he wanted to have.

Also, he didn't want to test how effective Pagan magic was against giant alien robots. Yeah, thanks, but no thanks.

In short, he couldn't actively interfere with the fight without blowing his cover, so he was forced to watch and wait.

The kid noticed the new arrivals when their group moved closer to the edge. Jodi's hope soared, believing that her buddy would soon be getting some much needed help.

This could be great. This was the cavalry Barricade didn't think would come, but hoped they would. If they stepped in at the right time, Loki wouldn't have to do anything after all, and the kid would be safe without him lifting a finger.

That thought sank like the Titanic when he skimmed into the mind of the nearest soldier. They were aware of the death match going down below, even had a sniper getting into position, but their orders were to not interfere until the girl had been found and secured.

Loki watched the gears turn in Jodi's head as the kid finally pieced together what she was seeing. When she came to her conclusion all her remaining optimism evaporated faster than a water droplet on a hot skillet.

The sudden churn of her emotions threw the trickster into an unwanted memory, an old memory, from long before he was ever Loki.

Back then he had stood on the outer fringes of his home as he watched his family turn on each other, the lines being drawn in stark black and white and was ordered to do something that went against every fiber of his being. It hadn't been something he could fight against, and when asked to choose a side he found he couldn't. He had stood there, and instead of taking up arms he decided to disappear, removing himself from the entire thing instead of fighting, knowing that regardless of who he sided with someone was going to get hurt.

The situation was vastly different, but Loki saw the lines being drawn here, and fully expected Jodi to pull away, to either remove herself from the situation, or go back to the soldiers still looking for her, to let herself be taken to safety. Barricade did tell her to run, after all.

So caught up in his own memory, the trickster almost missed the girl bolting away from him.

Her resolve had turned to granite, her thoughts sending a silent _fuck you _to all the armed forces that showed with the intention of only saving half their party.

_We are leaving together_, the promise rang louder than Loki thought it should, until he realized that an open payer came tumbling after it, asking every divine being that would listen to help the two of them survive the day.

There was a bone-chilling screech from down below, loud, and metallic and vibrating right down to the marrow. A glance at the fight revealed that Soundwave had a hand digging through Barricade's chest, clearly going for where his soul was being housed.

Loki was brought out of his horror by the desperate prayer from Jodi, the words a harsh promise.

_We are leaving together or not at all._

And then she did one of the finest displays of simultaneous human loyalty and sheer teenage _stupidity_ he had seen in millennia.

He followed in the girl's wake as she raced down to the beach to throw an old beer bottle at Soundwave's frame.

Because _obviously _thousands of pounds of metal-man could be brought down by a tiny bit of green glass. While it didn't actually bring him to his knees, it did gain her his full and undivided attention, plus some sort gun aimed at her head. And as she sat there staring down the barrel, Loki could feel Jodi's panic anchor her in place, and for one terrible second he had no idea if he could protect her from whatever it was loaded with.

Everything after that happened quickly and in rapid succession.

"NO!"

Barricade kicked up hard at his assailant, the shot vaporizing sand instead of paralyzed human teenager.

Barricade roared at Jodi, ordering her move, to make a run for it.

Loki snapped himself to Jodi's side. "You heard him kid, move it!" Infusing his fingertips with a tiny bit of power, he jabbed her in the flank to spur her to haul ass. A small compulsion might have been involved.

As the kid made a break for it Loki turned and was a bit unprepared for Soundwave's lunge. Bladed fingers reaching for the girl's retreating form, clearly intent on slicing the girl in half. With a grunt he lifted his arms to physically deflect the blow, but all he managed was to slow the follow-through. In the same instant Barricade latched on to the larger being, and hauled him back from Loki's invisible form, further lessening the blow.

It didn't save Jodi from having metal claws score across the length of her back.

Looking over his shoulder Loki saw the girl stumble, and hastily chased her down the far side of a sand dune where her body came to rest. Her already waifish form was crumpled on her side, reminding him of an old marionette he saw once, crushed and discarded with all of its strings cut.

Through the shreds of her school uniform her back was laid open, displaying three parallel lines that were wide and red and exposing spinal tissue.

Loki inhaled sharply as the reaper arrived, standing still and patiently waiting at the edge of his vision.

This was bad.

By all rights should make his exit now, with the reaper here that meant the kid was as good as gone anyway, and any other trickster would call it quits here. He could still zap himself to the next town, wipe this whole thing from his hands and call it a day.

He knew he wouldn't.

"Son of a bitch."

The core of him, the one who had seen the Beginning and had once been the herald of the Word and Divine Justice, rebelled at the thought of leaving this human child to die, after everything that she had survived. Her motives sang with pure intent, driven by nothing but love and loyalty, and it was a siren song to the part of him that remembered.

However, Loki's power lay in tricks and illusions, manipulating the fabric of the world to suit his needs. All of it had been built over time, grown by the days he was worshipped by the thousands, and sustained through the ages by his aliases and energy stolen from other Pagan gods that had fallen under his hand. While linked to creation and destruction both, Loki had no actual healing ability to speak of.

But Gabriel did.

Just acknowledging his true name set several things in motion. His wings woke in their confinement, straining against their bonds as his grace rose up and sang for action, _demanding it_, and it was all he could do to keep a lid on the sudden swell of holy power. He held tight to the reins, keeping the energy in check even as he laid hands on the girl.

The residual energy in the burn scar on her arm buzzed at him, agitated, but it was barely worth acknowledging.

Grace surged to the point of contact, waiting to be released, to restore the damage.

He checked himself just in time.

Without knowing exactly what kind of red flags he would be setting off, it was unlikely that he could get away with a full divine healing unnoticed. He hadn't spent eons building his cover just to blow it all now. He refused to risk it, not with so many witnesses, and not when he had no clue who was watching. He had to work carefully.

He could See every injury, old and new, and was aware of every nerve, every blood vessel, every damn molecule that composed her entire being, right down to every last atom. He ignored the physical and chemical damage to her right eye, knowing that the injury more than a year old and too noticeable to repair, regardless. Her wrist was so shattered, she would be lucky to use it even after surgery, and there was no surgeon on earth that would be able to let her walk again. Even if Soundwave hadn't chipped and cracked the vertebrae, the tissue and nerve damage was enormous. The cuts were deep, blood spilling hot and fast, seeping into the sand.

But he could ensure that she lived.

He _would_ ensure that she lived.

He flicked blazing eyes up to the reaper, who was giving him an amused and knowing smile, the bastard. Death's crew always recognized him, he knew they did, and he _hated it,_ but being what they were, they were the last ones to give his secret away.

"Leave," he barked. "She's not making your list today."

The reaper gave a slight nod and vanished, leaving Gabriel to his self-appointed task.

He replenished her blood as she lost it, keeping her heart beating, and her organs operational. With another miniscule brush of his grace he made sure that she remained unconscious, and that she was feeling no pain as he decided what he could get away with healing. As he debated what to do about her back, he pulled the shattered fragments of her wrist back together, making it a cleaner fracture that would be easy for the humans to treat.

He had it all under control until Barricade arrived, calling the girl's name.

Gabriel barely spared him a glance as he approached, taking quick note of the mangled frame, and that his chest cavity was exposed, the blue light from his soul illuminating the hole.

It was all well and good until the big metal behemoth scooped Jodi up, and unintentionally Gabriel as well, bringing them both up close and personal with his partially exposed soul, and Gabriel cursed the alien's stupidity as he struggled to balance himself. As Barricade tucked the tiny broken human tighter to him, his soul gave another strange pulse and a stray tendril of energy reached out and attempted to wrap around her.

Considering that he was the only thing keeping Jodi alive and _really _didn't need the interference, Gabriel acted on instinct and brought up a wing to simply brush the tendril away.

And in that instant the entire state of California was almost wiped clean from the map as two foreign energies collided head-on.

Eons of carefully cultivated control and iron-clad stubbornness were the only things that saved everyone here from the total obliteration that only an archangel was capable of. Gabriel highly doubted any of his brethren would have been able to do the same, then again the majority of his brother's didn't have the same regard for the planet as he did.

Gabriel had expected Barricade's soul to react like any other sentient being's would, easily rebuffed and pushed aside. In his assumption he forgot that _this_ soul was not created by his Father, was foreign, Other, and didn't necessarily play by the same rules.

He thought he was being attacked at first, it almost felt like it, but no. In it's desperation to reach Jodi, to _connect_, the damned soul used him as a conduit, hijacking his grace as a direct hard-line to the kid. Never in his long life had _anything_, monster, deity, or otherwise, tapped into his energy like this and all his Holy Warrior instincts screamed to _fight_ and the Loki side of him demanded to _run, _and caught between the two he found he could do neither_. _Because in that instant, less than a fraction of a second at best, the three of them were connected and for him to forcibly break that bridge would shatter them both. That, and the backlash from the resulting explosion would inevitably alert several key members within the Host, and Gabriel wasn't ready to face his brothers just yet.

So he buckled down and forced himself not to react, maintaining the connection while he continued to keep Jodi's blood flowing, all the while watching as his day took yet another big leap into the bizarre.

Earlier Gabriel had noticed the odd reaction these two souls had to each other, and now that they were connected they pulsed in tandem. Two heartbeats now in sync, one anchoring itself firmly to the other. Then the tendril of energy, a part of Barricade's very soul, fractured from the whole to bury itself within Jodi. As the rest of his soul retreated, it dragged a tiny shard of Jodi's soul with it, breaking it off forcibly and then absorbing the energy seamlessly into itself.

Gabriel was glad the kid was unconscious. He had it on good authority that tampering with a human soul hurts like a son of a bitch, much less _breaking a piece off_.

And then the link was broken.

The whole exchange had lasted mere seconds, but after the strain of holding himself immobile it felt more like days. Gabriel snapped back to himself with a gasp, resurfacing and reeling. As he collected himself he became aware of angry voices around them, demanding his focus to the situation at hand.

At some point during their connection, the soldiers had made their way down to the beach and had assembled themselves in a semi-circle around Barricade, weapons up and at the ready.

As Gabriel tried to get his bearings, he cursed himself even as he got a better understanding of the current situation.

What had he gotten himself into?

**Author's Note: **

I wont lie, this chapter ran away from me for a bit and it didn't help that Gabriel was chattering in my ear about multiple stories. Hopefully this means that I'll get another chapter of Hit Restart out of him (fingers crossed).

Anyway, one more chapter for this guy, so sorry about that guys. the next one is going to be a lot shorter than the first two. I just need to address one or two more things, before I move along in Wayward Ones. Thank you for your patience guys and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.


End file.
